A girl everyone calls the Grim Reaper meets someone who just thinks that's cool. That shift, that single moment of being seen instead of feared, is what this show is actually about. The animation is plain and the stakes are small, but it knows exactly what it costs to be lonely in fifth grade, and it gives you two kids who fix that for each other without trying. By the end you realize you've been watching a love story that never once needed to shout about it.

Fifth grader Akane Nishimura has a terrible reputation at school. Her quiet manner and intimidating stare have earned her the nickname Grim Reaper, and her classmates bully her without end, claiming she carries a curse that brings misfortune to everyone around her. Then transfer student Taiyou Takada arrives, and everything shifts. He has no idea about the situation in the class, and because he finds the supernatural fascinating, he walks right up to the so-called Grim Reaper and tries to become her friend. What starts as his innocent enthusiasm becomes the crack in Nishimura's walls. As summer unfolds, the two elementary schoolers share its simple pleasures together, from trips to the pool and picking sunflowers to watching fireworks. Takada is cheerful, well-meaning and more than a little clueless, yet his bright outlook is exactly what Nishimura needs to come out of her shell. The result is a gentle romantic comedy about an unlikely friendship and the courage it takes to let someone in.